The gloves are off after Dwight delivers a devastating one-two punch to Michael’s gut for the entire office to see. Dwight channels Ralph Macchio in the ensuing brawl, but not very well. Progress on the Jim/Pam front hits a roadblock when Jim gets too close for her comfort, and Ryan staves off Michael’s advances after making the mistake of giving him his cell phone number.

The Michael Scott School of Hard Knocks

Having Michael threaten to hock a loogie into Dwight’s mouth was simultaneously hilarous and repulsive. Priceless.

Dwight Being Dwight

I love how Dwight holds his pose after double-punching Michael in the gut. Follow-through is everything — I bet that’s the first lesson they teach you when you become a purple belt.

The Many Faces of Jim

It’s a good thing Jim and Dwight have adjacent desks — otherwise, we wouldn’t have scintillating conversations involving the peaceful coexistence of humans and robots. Dwight senses that he’s being mocked and threatens to make an example of Jim, to which Jim replies:

Confessions of a Receptionist

This might be my favorite Pam delivery yet:

Pam : Michael tends to procrastinate a bit whenever he has to do work. Um, timecards, he has to sign these every Friday. Purchase orders have to be approved at the end of every month, and expense reports … all he has to do is initial these … at the end of every quarter. But once a year, it all falls on the same Friday. That’s today. I call it The Perfect Storm.

The Jim/Pam Index

The dojo incident was a big setback, placing the JP Index for The Fight firmly in Down territory. It’ll probably take at least a couple episodes for this one to blow over. Not sending the e-mail was a good call, I think — you need to hit her where she’s weak, and that means bringing out the french onion.

Supporting Nod

Way to gank Dwight’s candle in the restroom during the pre-show, Kevin. Funny, I never would have pictured Dwight to be the aroma candle type.

The Superstar

Pam, no question about it. Michael and Dwight may have had the battle of the century, but Beesley was unstoppable in this one.

Transmissions from the Office

Pam : Well, the last pickup for overnight delivery is at seven, so you need to have them signed by then… or much earlier.

Another fine Pam quote.

Michael : Stop Pam-M-S-ing.

Michael then goes on to explain the importance of maintaining emergency contact information. Meanwhile, Pam is attempting to kill him with her mind.

Dwight : Now watch, let me take you from behind.Kelly : What?!

Every few episodes, Dwight somehow manages to molest Kelly (see The Fire, as he’s trying to help her escape).

Michael : So… catch 22.

Michael obviously has no idea what that really means, and it shows on Jim and Pam’s faces.

Michael : Hey Toby. Hey, you know what? I have an idea, why don’t you leave right now? Why don’t you walk away from the room, ok?

This scene was a gold mine. I predict that one of these days, when Toby’s finally had enough, he’s going to retaliate by defacing Michael’s Sebring. Horribly.

Michael : Well, you don’t even have anybody to go home to, Toby, so…

Maybe he could drive it off of a cliff. Do they have cliffs in Scranton?

Michael : Let’s gangbang this thing and go home.

Yeah. Ok.

Odds and Ends

Pam manipulating Michael into challenging Dwight to a fight. This episode was seriously a Pam highlight reel. She and Jim are like criminal masterminds.

The Story in Pictures

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I don't have much experience making screensavers, but wallpapers are a possibility. The problem with wallpapers is there's very little material to work with in the way of high quality stills from the show -- screen captures are ok, but the kind of quality I'm really looking for is, say, the kind that's available from the photography page at the NBC Media Village.

Unfortunately, those images are password-protected and probably not intended for this sort of use anyway. Still, I think it would be possible to put something together with what we have. I'll post if I'm able to come up with anything.

At the end of this episode, Dwight is changing his business card. At the bottom of the card you can see that Dwight's phone number is 717-555-0177. On December 5, 1998 Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) split the 717 area code into 570 and 717. Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, and the surrounding area's picked up the 570 area code, while the Harrisburg area kept 717.

3Posted by Anonymous on November 4, 2005

Did Verizon also keep the 555 phone prefix or is this just a TV show like I originally thought and not worth scrutinizing telephone numbers?

4Posted by Anonymous on November 5, 2005

I don't think the comment on the area codes was meant to be inflammatory -- at least that's not the way I read it. I thought it was a nice bit of trivia actually.

Jim's allusions to West Side Story, from his finger-snapping "When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way, right?" to his gleeful two-second dance as he's following Michael into the kitchen, were also precious.

Being the obsessed Office fan that I am, I had to confirm that SunChips does, in fact, make a French Onion flavor. Which they do.

I don't think Pam's reaction in the dojo was much of a setback. Jim went to far but not for Pam. Pam doesn't care and is enjoying it until Meredith looks back. Therefore, Pam has to act like she wasn't flirting with Jim and has to distance herself for the day. Every co-worker of Pam has easy access to her fiancee Roy, so she doesn't want any word going around that her and Jim were flirting. Just an unfortunate day for Jim.